On March 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gathered beauticians at his 1,100-room palace as he signed into law an unprecedented emergency decree on hair removal. The rally, “For a beautiful Turkey, of course, yes,” was aired live on television. After speaking for an hour about the upcoming referendum to an audience of meticulously turned-out beauty experts who cheered “yes” for Erdogan nonstop, the president showed the emergency decree to the crowd, and as a group of beauticians circled him on the podium, he signed the decree into law on live television. He also read parts of the law, carefully omitting words such as “hair removal,” but warmly congratulating the women for their dedication.

The hair removal regulation was published in the Official Gazette on March 30 and went into effect immediately. In a nutshell, the emergency was to grant beauticians the right to operate certain tools to perform laser hair removal.

Who is authorized to operate laser hair removal instruments is the core of the current decree. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) has provided various versions of the legislation since 2006, expanding and limiting the options for beauticians. Dermatologists argue that certain types of instruments to remove hair from its roots permanently through the utilization of lasers should not be allowed in beauty salons. Over the years, there have been thousands of cases where people seeking hair removal were hospitalized with severe burns and other skin deformities and infections due to improper applications of the technology. So the Health Ministry decided only hospitals or clinics that pass its approval should be permitted to operate these machines.

Considering that Turkey is going through a prolonged state of emergency, why did hair removal get a live audience and an hourlong ceremony at the palace? Turkish social media users were initially shocked, and several sardonic comments followed the event. Here are some of them: